In the world of web development, choosing the right tools for the job can be as exciting as it is daunting. One such choice led me down an unexpected path while working on a new Ruby on Rails 7 application. Here’s my story:
Integrating Sass: A Smooth Start
I decided to use Sass instead of simple CSS in my application, and things started smoothly. After including the sass-rails gem in my Gemfile and renaming my app/stylesheets/application file from application.css to application.scss, I was ready to go.
Encountering Errors: The Asset Pipeline Challenge
However, I was soon greeted with the following error:
Sprockets::Rails::Helper::AssetNotFound
The asset "application.css" is not present in the asset pipeline.
This error meant that Rails was looking for the old application.css file, but it had been renamed to application.scss. An easy mistake to make, but a frustrating one to fix!
Finding Solutions: Cleaning and Compiling Assets After searching online for solutions, I ran these commands in my terminal:
rails assets:clobber
rails assets:precompile
According to the official Rails documentation, clobber removes the old precompiled assets, and precompile compiles the new ones.
This fixed the immediate issue, but I then encountered a new challenge.
The Tedious Task: Continuous Precompilation
The styles started working, but I had to restart my server and run rails assets:precompile every time I made changes to the SCSS file. This was far from ideal, as it disrupted my workflow.
The Final Touch: Real-Time Style Changes Further research led me to add the following line to the config/environments/development.rb file:
config.assets.compile = true
After deleting the “public/assets” folder and restarting the server, everything worked perfectly. The styles were changing in real time, just as I had intended.
Conclusion: Lessons Learned
This experience taught me a lot about the intricacies of working with Sass in a Rails environment. Sometimes, even a simple task like integrating a new gem can lead to unexpected challenges.
Understanding the asset pipeline, precompilation process, and development environment configuration can be complex, but it’s a rewarding learning experience.
Whether you’re new to Rails or an experienced developer, I hope my journey serves as a helpful guide, illustrating that challenges can be overcome with perseverance, research, and a little bit of trial and error.
Happy coding! 🚀